Largemouth Bass Blues

[jason.glew]

I live in J-ville and am a bass fisherman to the bone. After Florence all the rivers I typically go to are shot; cape fear, NE cape fear, New River, Trent. Bass are far few and in between on all of them now a days. Mud fish are plentiful and fun but getting old. I Haven’t been to the neuse river since the storm because of how bad the flooding was up that way. I’m considering going this week sometime. Worth it?

[michael_cb_125]

I feel your pain. While the lakes that I fish were not affected by the storms, the bass tournamnets are putting a whopping on the fish.
I fish badin alot, and the last five years it has really gone down hill. We used to regulary pull 6-8 pound fish from that lake.
Now it seems like there is a tournament every day of the week, plus night tournaments.
I cannot tell you how many times this year we put in at alcoa and there be 10-15 floating bass from the tournament the day prior.

Almost every bass we catch now has damage to the lips/jaws. From hook holes to totally dislocated bottom jaws, we has seen it all.

That said they are still around, just harder to fool. I caught my biggest bass in over 8 years on badin sun. Was over 10#. But that is not something that I plan on happening often.

Now I look for my big bass in farm ponds.......

~Michael

[jason.glew]

Mike, yeah that sucks. We’ve (my wife is a bass fisherwomen) been making trips to the tri city area; Falls, Jordan, and Harris. Making that drive every weekend is getting on my nerves. I’m not a tournament guy specifically for some of those reasons. Some of the folks out there treat the fish like butthole and it too gets on my nerves. We’ll probably come out the Badin way this fall with camper in tow. Try something new.

[lewisfishing]

Which is why we need to keep some of the largemouth, or bass in general, to the state standards so we can keep the stock healthy! If we keep recycling these fish, this is whats gonna happen.

[jason.glew]

Lews...”keep them to the state standard”. I don’t think I understand what u mean by that. Are you referencing anglers keeping a few fish they catch versus 100% catch/release? Or are you talking about something different?

[lewisfishing]

Lews...”keep them to the state standard”. I don’t think I understand what u mean by that. Are you referencing anglers keeping a few fish they catch versus 100% catch/release? Or are you talking about something different?

I am saying it is ok to keep legal bass, based on the state guidelines. Most people don’t, but
I think selective harvest is always beneficial to releasing all fish.


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[lewisfishing]

Now, understand I am speaking from a normal sized body of water. Selective harvest on small bodies is definitely not as “generous” with the creel limits as with the larger bodies. The smaller lakes and ponds, depending on pressure, could be fished out quickly. That’s why I use the term “selective”.


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[jason.glew]

Gotcha....completely agree. I’m surprised the commission hasn’t stiffened up the 2019-2020 regulations more following Florence; especially for the eastern coast river systems. Assuming I’m a decent angler (lol), I’m pretty sure the LMB population has been seriously effected by that storm. I can’t justify keeping a fish right now out of these waters until I see some improvement. Then again, I could simply suck at bass fishing and there be nothing wrong with the population!!